2024, Gatherings, holidays, Music, Uncategorized

Whew!

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Yesterday was tiring but satisfying. We played in the bell choir at both morning church services, came home and packed up seven boxes of Dresden Stollen and cookies (one box had a Bremer Klaben instead of a stollen) and got them to the UPS store. We then played bells and sang at the annual Lessons and Carols service at our church in the afternoon. I got to read the Bidding Prayer again. By 5:00 PM we were done and free. We are heartily sick of being town musicians at Christmas.

By town musicians, I mean some of the few people who are active in the musical community in our small town. The majority of town musicians are affiliated in some way with our Lutheran church. Our local college had a vibrant and active music department with a band and a choir. They had music festivals for high school students and hosted lots of concerts. The recent college president decided that the music and theatre departments didn’t have enough student majors, so he closed them down last year. The Education department has enough music education majors and they need to have some sort of music going on, so they have a band of one person and a choir of six singers. Our bell choir played with them two weeks ago at a Christmas concert in the college student center. Had our bell choir not been there, it wouldn’t have been much of a concert. I should add that the decision by the college president was so unpopular he quit. I don’t think they will reinstate the music department, though.

The Lessons and Carols service was lovely, and our church music director had a local classical guitarist, someone I had never heard of, play the following piece.

The guitarist appears to be Spanish. I have no idea how he got to North Dakota, but it was delightful to hear him. We have only one more vocal choir performance next Sunday, and no rehearsals this week, so we are free to relax and chill. Christmas hysteria is over, at least in our house. I may need to order more classical guitar recordings, though.

What musical instrument would you like to hear more of? How is the Christmas hysteria at your abode?

29 thoughts on “Whew!”

  1. I miss the Hammond B-3 organ in pop music. A really fun instrument to listen to in the hands of a master. But I’m not sure it works well for Xmas music. 🙂 Pretty much any acoustic instrument works for me. Piano, guitar, string bass, violin, cello. Human voice!

    Makes me sad whenever any arts program is cut in any school, especially a music program. Alas, that’s the reality of education today–it’s mostly about the money and what we can afford based on what the taxpayers are willing to pay. Or how much tuition a student is willing to part with.

    We’ve been downplaying Christmas for the past 10 years. Last year I don’t think we decorated other than putting up very small trees in the front window and on the back porch. We used to get a full sized live tree (sometimes cutting it ourselves at a local tree farm) and decorate it to the nines, put out manger scenes, It’s a Wonderful Life villages, small decorations all over, etc. And we used to send 20+ Christmas cards to friends and family. Much earlier than that, when the kids were still kids, we gave presents.

    Now we donate to charity in lieu of gifts (MUCH more satisfying and a lot less time-consuming!). We no longer send cards, decorate much, or even play Christmas music CDs very often.

    The latter is mostly because everyone else in the public sphere plays more and more Christmas music starting right after Thanksgiving and escalating the amount until Dec. 25. MPR is a perfect example of that. And of course the other recent fad is 24/7 Christmas music radio stations. (Ugh!)

    We’re fortunate to not have Christmas hysteria in our house. Yes, sometimes we feel like Scrooges, but modern versions of most holidays have taken away much of the meaning, personality, and spirituality of so many holiday. It’s only been this way for a hundred years or so. Would’ve been nice to experience a year’s worth of holidays back in the 1800s.

    Chris in Owatonna

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    2. One of my favorite Fresh Air episodes was Al Kooper talking about playing Hammond B-3 organ on Like A Rolling Stone. Around nine minutes into this interview it gets into that session.

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  3. Pretty much the same thing has happened to music at St. Mary’s Univ. here in Winona, Renee. It’s pretty sad.

    I too have cut way back on Christmas stuff. I will send out a letter via email at some point maybe some cards between Christmas and New Years. I hope to start playing our Christmas tapes and albums, but haven’t been home enough till now.

    We did have our annual Solstice Service yesterday at UU, which is a hoot – people perform all kinds of musical numbers, poems or readings, some of it pretty humorous… a lot of fun. Now we have two Sundays off… 🙂 🙂

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  5. Rise and Ring a Bell,Baboons,

    My story is almost identical to Chris’–reduced level of decor, followed by a happier me. I do enjoy many parts of it, especially a Christmas Eve candlelight service. I think it is the ccmmercial aspects that take the joy out of it. I also stopped sending many cards. I will replace that with something, but I don’t know what yet.

    This Christmas has been complicated by the death of my daughter-in-law’s father right before Thanksgiving. He was quite disabled, and her parents were scheduled to move to a new apartment two days after he died. There was a lease involved, so her mother had to move. Then immediately following the move, her mother’s father went to hospice care. We have not seen son and DIL for weeks while all this played out. They have gone to great lengths to assist her mom, bless them all. So anything else wedo will occur after New Years when they are back home. They will be exhausted! Meanwhile, I am participating in the parts I enjoy and having fun.

    Renee, the colleges cutting back on music will find they are making a mistake. Such things have been researched. It always shows that the music and arts enriches the cultural and economic life of a community. Sigh.

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  7. And I was all set to say that I’m done with Christmas hysteria after last night but when I looked in the mirror this morning, I have glitter on my face.

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  8. If anyone was wondering, Klaben is a northern German version of Dresden stollen. It is more austere than the Dresden stollen of those gemutlich Bavarians, with less brandy and rum, and mostly currants instead of glaceed cherries and raisins. No powdered sugar on the top, either. Our son requested Klaben and an Ostfriesland cookie called Heidesands. He said he wanted to eat like a Bremener for Christmas. I don’t think he knows that he also should be feasting on eel soup in that case.

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  9. I really like the sounds of baroque-era instruments, like lute, recorder, cello, mandocello, mandola and harpsichord. I like Bach music, and the old instruments intrigue me. I like the spare sounds that have not been messed with by technology.

    I like lights at all times of the year, and at this time of darkness I like them even more. I do have an artificial tree called a “pencil tree.” I think it’s named so due to its narrow shape. It’s about 6 1/2 feet tall but only about 2 feet perimeter at the bottom. It tapers gradually like a candle.

    I have some hand-painted ornaments that a friend of my mom’s made and gave to us. I love them too much to hide them away, so, while I don’t really celebrate Christmas, I still haul it all out and put it up. It takes almost no time at all to set up that tree and to decorate it. I have some other hand-painted decorations that were also made by Mom’s friend Kate. A largish, cut stump of a birch log painted with Santa, a tree, and my mom’s dog, Sami; a round, lightweight box painted with a scene of Santa choosing a tree; a couple of hand-painted trays with winter scenes; and lots of small paintings of chickadees. These recall the happiest days of my mom’s life. They weren’t originally mine, although Kate did make ornaments for me too, but they’re all dear to me. I am alone for Christmas, so I do what I like.

    I have a peace sign that I hang on my deck railing at this time of year. I made it with a hula hoop and three strings of multi-colored lights. It’s my outdoor decoration. I think the neighbor across from me, the bully I have described before, hates it. My message should be clear. I don’t do it to irritate him.

    I get tired of it all by New Year’s though. It all gets boxed up and put away before New Year’s Eve.

    I still send out holiday cards but fewer all the time.

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  13. We saw Andre Volenvider years ago. Maybe at Northrup? Haven’t thought of him in years. You all reminded of him today.
    And I heard Mike Oldfied doing Tubular Bells on the radio today too. A banner day!

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